[Rubygems-developers] Version number format

[Chad Fowler]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Jamis Buck wrote:

# Chad Fowler wrote:
# 
# > The downside is you have to require_gem("captcha-snapshot"), but given the 
# > way gems works, you would most likely only be doing this in one place, so 
# > it wouldn't be a big deal to change when you get to general release for 
# > libs that require the snapshot.
# > 
# > What do you think?
# 
# It sounds great, except for the part about having to require the 
# 'captcha-snapshot' gem. :(
# 
# Jim's suggestion, though, about appending the date (and possibly the 
# time) appeals to me. Adding the date does make it clear that its not a 
# "standard" release, and you still get the correct version comparisons 
# AND the require_gem works as expected.
# 
# Plus, it requires no additional effort on anyone's part, since it 
# already works that way. (right?)
# 
# 

The only problem I see with Jim's suggestion is that there is no way 
(currently) for the gem installer to differentiate between these bleeding 
edge releases and a normal upgrade.  So, if you want to update the latest 
*stable* release, you have to specify a version string.  I would find that 
to be annoying.   Anyone have an idea of how we could fix that in this 
scenario?  I like the fact that with the -snapshot method, you could 
continue to update the stable version in parrallel to the snapshot 
version.

I'm still liking the captcha-snapshot idea better, but the lovely thing 
here is that we don't *have* to specify a policy on this.  RubyGems will 
support several options, and it could be managed on a library-by-library 
basis.

Chad